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Run a nuclear facility or the Pan Am Games – that was the ticket to big bucks last year, according to the annual Sunshine List of Ontario’s six-figure-earning public servants.

The top paid bureaucrat Tom Mitchell, who retired last year, pulled in $1.5 million plus another $66,377 in taxable benefits for heading up Ontario Power Generation which generates nuclear, gas-fired and hydro power — about half the electricity used in the province.

His successor, Jeffrey Lyash earned almost $800,000 for his partial year at the helm.

Pan Am executives took home the gold with four vice presidents making the top 10 list for 2015.

The Toronto Organizing Committee for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games put 68 employees in total on the Sunshine List.

“The Pan Am Games were widely regarded as the best ever,” Deputy Premier and Treasury Board President Deb Matthews said Thursday. “It’s an international sporting event. You’ve got to pay those rates.”

Neala Barton, a former press secretary to two premiers, earned just under $300,000 as Pan Am’s senior vice president communications and media relations – well over Premier Kathleen Wynne’s salary.

“I never compare to the Premier because as we all know she’s vastly underpaid,” Matthews said.

The annual Sunshine List, which was launched under the former Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris, shines public scrutiny on civil servants making $100,000 a year or more.

Matthews pointed out that had the threshold been adjusted for inflation, 88% of the names on this year’s list would drop off.

Liberals defend Sunshine List of province's top earners

Run a nuclear facility or the Pan Am Games – that was the ticket to big bucks last year, according to the annual Sunshine List of Ontario’s six-figure-earning public servants.

The top paid bureaucrat Tom Mitchell, who retired last year, pulled in $1.5 million plus another $66,377 in taxable benefits for heading up Ontario Power Generation which generates nuclear, gas-fired and hydro power — about half the electricity used in the province.

His successor, Jeffrey Lyash earned almost $800,000 for his partial year at the helm.

Pan Am executives took home the gold with four vice presidents making the top 10 list for 2015.

The Toronto Organizing Committee for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games put 68 employees in total on the Sunshine List.

“The Pan Am Games were widely regarded as the best ever,” Deputy Premier and Treasury Board President Deb Matthews said Thursday. “It’s an international sporting event. You’ve got to pay those rates.”